Be Careful with San Juan Hotel Reservations!

This list is definitely not accurate. Our hotel (Coral Princess) cancelled us, well rather I called to confirm and they would not honor the reservation. Never informed us either. We found a small place and pre-paid. Now we shall see if it is honored. Others on the list are not accepting reservations.

That was my experience too. Booked 6+months ago for January 2018. Communicated with them via Facebook in the past three weeks... they said they never closed, "open now," etc. - but this week when I emailed them for a more formal response, I got told they can't honour my reservation because they're still recovering and/or hosting relief workers. Their website allows people to book for 10 nights or more, though.

OK. I asked because I was trying to understand why you were blaming Celebrity when you stated "Why Celebrity would put their passengers in a situation like this". I don't see what they have done wrong personally. But if you have booked your cruise directly with them, could you try and append a hotel reservation to your booking?

I hope you all get sorted out soon regardless.

I can't say for sure what the poster meant, but my speculation is that Celebrity is putting their passengers in this situation by returning to San Juan too soon. It is obviously not ready to handle the volume of passengers coming in, and people are scrambling like crazy to try to find ways to make it work. I suspect there will be many that end up "up the proverbial creek" (hopefully fewer and fewer as weeks go by). It would be nice if Celebrity could contract with a few of the operational hotels to help their passengers work things out, but I know that will not happen. Yes, they booked those rooms independently, but with the expectation that it was reasonable to assume they could find lodging in PR before their cruise. That expectation no longer exists and may not for some time.

Hi,

I had 2 reservations cancelled on me. I found the Acadia Boutique hotel that is open. I talked to some at the hotel before booking through booking.com. I have emailed them again to double check.

 

Here is a link from the tourism bureau that lists the hotels that are open. Not saying they have rooms because some of them are full of first responders.

 

http://puertoriconow.seepuertorico.com/hotels/

We booked the same hotel but I have been unable to confirm by phone. We took a refundable fare.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I can't say for sure what the poster meant, but my speculation is that Celebrity is putting their passengers in this situation by returning to San Juan too soon. It is obviously not ready to handle the volume of passengers coming in, and people are scrambling like crazy to try to find ways to make it work. I suspect there will be many that end up "up the proverbial creek" (hopefully fewer and fewer as weeks go by). It would be nice if Celebrity could contract with a few of the operational hotels to help their passengers work things out, but I know that will not happen. Yes, they booked those rooms independently, but with the expectation that it was reasonable to assume they could find lodging in PR before their cruise. That expectation no longer exists and may not for some time.

I'm not sure it makes sense to point the finger at Celebrity though. If Summit had been moved to Fort Lauderdale or Miami you'd have thousands or even tens of thousands of passengers having issues also. Particularly those who booked their own flights and hotels. The itineraries would also have had to have been altered with more sea days which would have a knock on affect for those losing out to the ship no longer sailing to their ports etc.

The sooner things get back to normal in PR the better for the locals. From what I understand the PR economy was in bad shape before the hurricanes arrived and so the locals are not facing first world problems like we are. Tourists trickling in will not only help with the recovery (Remember it all needs paying for) but it should ultimately speed things up so that things can return to normal.

Celebrity are able to book hotel rooms for those travelling in december. Or at least they were a few days ago. They can also offer private transfers from airport to hotel and hotel to ship etc. So the airport is open, the roads are clear and the cruise port is also open. Whilst I understand why other lines have cancelled calling in for a day at San Juan I'm not convinced that pulling Summit from there would be a great idea if you look at the bigger picture.

As I said earlier though, I hope everyone sailing on her gets sorted out with flights and accomodation if travelling in the near future.

This site, may be useful...the homepage has a links to pages dedicated to Airport, Hotels, CruisePorts. And a live chat functionality (I asked about taxi availability from SJU to the port, which they said was fine)

http://puertoriconow.seepuertorico.com/hotels/

This site, may be useful...the homepage has a links to pages dedicated to Airport, Hotels, CruisePorts. And a live chat functionality (I asked about taxi availability from SJU to the port, which they said was fine)

 

 

http://puertoriconow.seepuertorico.com/hotels/

That site is inaccurate as far as hotels are concerned. Do not take anything on that list at face value - phone and speak to someone on the ground at the hotel and not to central booking sites elsewhere in the US as they seem to have no idea what's going on either.

That site is inaccurate as far as hotels are concerned. Do not take anything on that list at face value - phone and speak to someone on the ground at the hotel and not to central booking sites elsewhere in the US as they seem to have no idea what's going on either.

I agree about calling directly. We called our hotel and they electricity and water BUT no a/c. That is a dealbreaker for us. Happy for the late sailaway time, and changed our flights to day of.

I can't say for sure what the poster meant, but my speculation is that Celebrity is putting their passengers in this situation by returning to San Juan too soon. It is obviously not ready to handle the volume of passengers coming in, and people are scrambling like crazy to try to find ways to make it work. I suspect there will be many that end up "up the proverbial creek" (hopefully fewer and fewer as weeks go by). It would be nice if Celebrity could contract with a few of the operational hotels to help their passengers work things out, but I know that will not happen. Yes, they booked those rooms independently, but with the expectation that it was reasonable to assume they could find lodging in PR before their cruise. That expectation no longer exists and may not for some time.

Cruiselines just want it to work in several ports that are clearly not ready, other than the pier itself...doubts about that too! Modern Luxury!

Thank you for all the chatter on this subject Was booked into the Condado Plaza Hilton for Dec 1st was just informed that it will now not be available until at least January next year for weeks the opening day was going to be Nov 1st Had I not been reading this site I could have ended up with no hotel I was able to secure a room at the San Juan Marriott I had booked through a major travel agency starting with E and they were very helpful in changing my reservation Happy cruising to you all

Thank you for all the chatter on this subject Was booked into the Condado Plaza Hilton for Dec 1st was just informed that it will now not be available until at least January next year for weeks the opening day was going to be Nov 1st Had I not been reading this site I could have ended up with no hotel I was able to secure a room at the San Juan Marriott I had booked through a major travel agency starting with E and they were very helpful in changing my reservation Happy cruising to you all

That's interesting because Celebrity UK are booking passengers into this hotel for the dates you mention!

http://www.condadoplaza.com/default-en.html

Sailing 12/2 on Summit. Yesterday I cancelled my hotel reservation. I just don't trust. Too many stories of last minute cancellations. We will now fly day before to Fort Lauderdale from NYC and then from FLL to SJ day off. I've had it.

Sailing 12/2 on Summit. Yesterday I cancelled my hotel reservation. I just don't trust. Too many stories of last minute cancellations. We will now fly day before to Fort Lauderdale from NYC and then from FLL to SJ day off. I've had it.

Sounds like a good plan.

Sailing 12/2 on Summit. Yesterday I cancelled my hotel reservation. I just don't trust. Too many stories of last minute cancellations. We will now fly day before to Fort Lauderdale from NYC and then from FLL to SJ day off. I've had it.

What airline is allowing you to do that? When I called my booking site (Chase for an AA flight), they said I could only change my day into San Juan, not the city to which I am flying. We wanted to go from Chi to FLL, stay a couple days, then take a morning flight into San Juan.

That's interesting because Celebrity UK are booking passengers into this hotel for the dates you mention!

 

http://www.condadoplaza.com/default-en.html

Have you double checked with X? At least you have booked your hotel through them, so they will find you something. It may be similar to what they did for those pax in Barcelona when Connie was late after the drydock: they dropped so many pax off at each hotel that had enough rooms and then continued on to other hotels until everyone had somewhere to stay?

Have you double checked with X? At least you have booked your hotel through them, so they will find you something. It may be similar to what they did for those pax in Barcelona when Connie was late after the drydock: they dropped so many pax off at each hotel that had enough rooms and then continued on to other hotels until everyone had somewhere to stay?

Triple checked. Though to be brutally honest if we were in a different hotel it wouldn't really matter. They are adamant it will be there though.

I've read a lot of horror stories on the roll calls. So deliberately booked hotel and transfers through them.

That said, my post is a few days old now so it is possible they have ran out of rooms since we booked with them.

Hilton Condado Villas in San Juan sent us an email a couple weeks ago cancelling our three day pre cruise stay. Delta switched us to arrive on embarkation day.

Hilton Condado Villas in San Juan sent us an email a couple weeks ago cancelling our three day pre cruise stay. Delta switched us to arrive on embarkation day.

Despite checking with Celebrity UK it looks like you're right.

Will call them later to discuss an alternative or packing my tent.

Well that didn't go at all well. Celebrity UK can't confirm what is happening and just say "Miami will be in touch....". But can't give any indication of when or what will happen. Disappointing customer service skills and attitude too. :(

Might need to invoke vacation plan B! :)

Well that didn't go at all well. Celebrity UK can't confirm what is happening and just say "Miami will be in touch....". But can't give any indication of when or what will happen. Disappointing customer service skills and attitude too. :(

 

Might need to invoke vacation plan B! :)

Start wiping that tent down :D.

Start wiping that tent down :D.

Tent wiped down, camping stove and some kendall mint cake packed. I've even dug out an old Ray Mears survival guide.

You'd think I was off sailing with Carnival! :D

tent wiped down, camping stove and some kendall mint cake packed. I've even dug out an old ray mears survival guide.

 

You'd think i was off sailing with carnival! :d

:D ;p

I might not need the tent after all. In fact Celebrity UK might have even come good.

We were flying from LHR to San Juan via Miami originally for two nights pre cruise hotel there. But with the difficulties they're facing rebooking other passengers they've offered to fly us from our regional airport instead to Philly, and they suck up the additional cost of that flight, and pay for one or two nights hotel in Philladelphia instead, before flying us out to San Juan the same day we sail whilst refunding us the full cost of both our original hotel and transfers.

Apparently RCCL group have had to charter planes from Miami, Charlotte and Philly to ensure they can get everyone to the ships as there simply are not enough seats on the regular scheduled flights on sailing day. So everyone on the same flight to San Juan will be on the same cruise so no worries about the ship sailing before we get there! They've given us till 12 tomorrow to make a decision. :D

I might not need the tent after all. In fact Celebrity UK might have even come good.

 

We were flying from LHR to San Juan via Miami originally for two nights pre cruise hotel there. But with the difficulties they're facing rebooking other passengers they've offered to fly us from our regional airport instead to Philly, and they suck up the additional cost of that flight, and pay for one or two nights hotel in Philladelphia instead, before flying us out to San Juan the same day we sail whilst refunding us the full cost of both our original hotel and transfers.

 

 

 

:D

While looking for current conditions for San Juan for our 1/6 Summit Cruise I found your post. I can't tell which cruise you are scheduled to go on (not obvious), but I live in Philly and if you need ideas of what to see and do here for the 2 nights, I'll be happy to help. Just let me know and we can email.

BTW, we are booked two nights before at a hotel in the lagoon area of SJ. They are open using residual power. Hoping that in 8 weeks things will be up and running.

S

While looking for current conditions for San Juan for our 1/6 Summit Cruise I found your post. I can't tell which cruise you are scheduled to go on (not obvious), but I live in Philly and if you need ideas of what to see and do here for the 2 nights, I'll be happy to help. Just let me know and we can email.

 

BTW, we are booked two nights before at a hotel in the lagoon area of SJ. They are open using residual power. Hoping that in 8 weeks things will be up and running.

 

S

Thank you Steve that's a very kind offer. We have chosen to fly into Philly later afternoon and then depart the following morning for San Juan so will have very limited time there unfortunately.

We start a B2B on december 2nd. DW had a lengthy discussion with Celebrity UK who have basically advised that when we booked after final payment date some hotels expected to be open and were taking bookings from Celebrity. Unfortunately some have reassessed the damage and concluded that repairs will take longer than expected and have since cancelled bookings.

Sadly the hotels have not been able to notify many people with bookings that they will not be honoured very quickly. Celebrity believe that many are still in for an unpleasant surprise if they've booked DIY travel. Hopefully things will improve rapidly.

They have been very helpful and even offered to refund 100% of our vacation even though we're well past final payment date. I suspect they will be losing on some of their bookings and are trying to cut their losses though. There has certainly been some last minute cancellations though. I've been monitoring prices and room availability closely and note that one cruise has gone from 7% of staterooms available to 12% available in the course of one week which equates to approximately 50 empty rooms!

It looks like there will be a lot more hotel room availiblity in january though so I'm sure you'll be fine. :)

Thank you Steve that's a very kind offer. We have chosen to fly into Philly later afternoon and then depart the following morning for San Juan so will have very limited time there unfortunately.

 

fine. :)

That's fine. I thought you needed to kill time. Let me know where you will stay in Philly if you want guidance. You are probably better staying out by airport (a hotel with a shuttle) than staying in town .

Sorry I'll miss meeting you. You will be coming back when we leave. I was waiting for air to SJU to drop but it hasn't so I bought flight as there is only one good NS each day.

And we were upgraded to a Congierge 2 because we hit Diamond on RCI and we got a group rate and it's past final payment sio we can't ask for a price drop.

Still trying to confirm any port changes. For 1/6 they have not announced any.